STAR TREK 4 Is Back? Noah Hawley to Direct Next Film

It looks like a new Star Trek film might be heading towards production. We’ve been waiting for word on the fate of the Kelvin timeline movies for quite a while now. Recent news suggested that the film franchise had stalled for the future.

Deadline reports that Noah Hawley is in final talks with Paramount to write and direct the next Star Trek film. JJ Abrams will also produce with his Bad Robot banner. The film will be the 4th installment of the modern movie franchise, which started in 2009 with “Star Trek.”

There are no details on the plot or if this project is confirmed as of yet. It’s worth assuming that the previous film cast will return to reprise their roles. Chris Pine joins Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, and Karl Urban.

Chris Pine as Captain James T.Kirk (Star Trek: Beyond – 2016)

Previously Paramount had attempted to produce another movie with S.J Clarkson directing. The plot and story featuring the return of Chris Hemsworth as his character of George Kirk from the 2009 film. Sadly this idea never came to be and was shelved due to deals with the actors not being reached. According to Variety, the studio is hoping that this attempt will be more successful as it will feature a different plot than the one Hemsworth turned down.

The news of the Star Trek film franchises pending future does bring forward a few speculative questions many of us have had for quite some time now.

The tragic passing of actor Anton Yelchin leaves the question of how is the character of Pavel Chekov is handled. Will producers recast him, or will the character simply not be shown on screen? He could be off on another starship, maybe the USS Reliant as previously seen in the film, The Wrath of Kahn. This would answer the question of why Checkov could not be seen in the new movie.

Another thing to consider with the revival of the film franchise is Paramount’s merger with CBS. Viacom, who owns Paramount has agreed to merge with the CBS Corporation in a deal which is due to close in early December this year. This will bring all the Star Trek rights under one roof again.

Currently, the merger doesn’t appear to affect anything in progress for Trek on TV with CBS All Access though. When asked about the merger and its effect, Alex Kurtzman stated that it was “business as usual and that they already have a slate of shows that’s going to take them easily through the next five years.”

CBS is producing multiple Star Trek series of their own, includingStar Trek: Discovery, the upcoming Star Trek: Picard, and Lower Decks. All under the guidance of Alex Kurtzman’s “Secret Hideout” production company.

Alex Kurtzman did state however that “if movies come into play then we’ll be ready“. So that doesn’t rule out feature-length adventures on CBS sometime in the future.

Zachary Quinto as Spock.

For the moment, ALL new Star Trek content is streamed on CBS All Access and separate international providers. How will a new movie play into this? Will Paramount and CBS chose to still use traditional methods, or attempt to experiment with a new joint streaming / theatrical release?

Now many of you may remember the news about Director Quentin Tarrantino pitching an R-Rated Star Trek movie idea to Paramount. This idea has been gaining traction for quite some time now. Deadline reported that the idea has also got JJ Abrams tied to it and it is being developed separately. The film project will also have Mark L Smith, known for The Revenant writing the screenplay.

Keep up to date with all the Star Trek news via Trek Centrals website and YouTube Channel.

Thanks to Dominic Paris and TJ Jeffrey from the Trek Central team for contributing to this article.

Director and Executive Editor of Trek Central.
A lifelong Sci-Fi fan, Jack has been successfully running a Sci-Fi YouTube channel under the name “Captain Jack” since 2010. He’s also the voice you will hear on the Trek Central YouTube channel.